 But actually happened this year, so that was pretty exciting to have, and I think we voted Oh, we had a call. This guy should be... Hit him. It's all of you, I'm not from here. What? Even when I think about it, if I get on this... You're really good. But he just wants that hearing that first. So you have to put all the apparatus toward it, coming up with some testimony and something about nurses. You'd rather be here. Yeah. Yeah, I'm 24. I wouldn't be like that. I would like to welcome President Ford. This is Betty Ford in the audience. My wife, Jean. Dr. Kissinger, Governor Engler. Regent Becky Rebecca McGowan on the stage. Today the University of Michigan takes the historic step of naming the School of Public Policy for its alumnus, Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President of the United States. A few comments about the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy. The school traces its beginnings to 1914 with the founding of the Institute of Public Administration, one of the first programs of its kind in the United States. In 1968, the Institute was renamed the Institute of Public Policy Studies. Then, just five years ago, in 1995, the Institute became a school within the University with independent hiring and curricular authority. In August of 1999, just over one year ago, we welcomed the prominent economist, Rebecca Blank, as the new dean of the school. Under Dean Blank's leadership, we now have launched a major expansion of the school. We will expand its teaching and research mission and its connections to the outside world of policy. Over the next decade, we will enjoy the pleasures of significant growth in this academic field and the enrichment of the university that will come from the contacts the school will naturally foster with visitors and contacts in the important world of policymaking. Gerald R. Ford was born in 1913, poetically one year before the founding of the Institute of Public Administration. Even more poetically, his family moved to Michigan to Grand Rapids one year later in 1914, becoming a Michigan resident at the very moment that the School of Public Policy was itself born. President Ford's biography is well known, especially in this quarter of the world. Most significantly for this occasion, however, is the fact that he was a student at the University of Michigan from 1931 to 1935. A fine student and athlete, President Ford, as he always would, left an even finer impression for his character. A friend and fellow athlete said of the president, Jerry was upright, perhaps a little more reserved than the rest of us. He always had a good word for everyone and was a guy you couldn't help but like. He also worked very hard, waiting tables in the University Hospital cafeteria and he showed signs of being enterprising, selling blood every two months for $25 a pint. President Ford's connections with this university go well beyond his time here as a student. He has returned many, many times. He served as the honorary chair of the 1983 Capital Campaign, the first comprehensive university-wide campaign, and of course we are now proud to be the site and to have the associations, which will grow with the Ford Presidential Library. But the greatest of all connections is in the affection that he invariably manifests for this university. The naming of a school or college within the university is a rare event. Rare and historic events tend to invite lengthy responses, but they are best served by the fewest words. I want to say only this. What we accomplish and celebrate today is more than a naming. It is a blending, a relationship over decades and hopefully centuries. The University of Michigan, the School of Public Policy, and Gerald R. Ford now reflect on each other. We all are, in a sense, one. In this we can take great pride and happiness and feel secure about the future. For President Ford is known for what is the most important element of public policy and the hardest to study and to teach, namely character. Policymaking, like any decision-making, has many components. We learn how to gather and to understand information. We learn about history, about precedence, about the nature of the institutions in which decisions will be reached. We will forever debate the question whether bad people can make good policy or good law or good decisions. But we would be foolish to believe that it never matters who the person is behind the policy. And we should never neglect the fact that the qualities of the policymaker at work within the policymaking are themselves lessons and examples for all to see. And the fact that these qualities of character are not amenable to analysis and exposition does not mean that they are unimportant, on the contrary. Because of the significance of character to public policy and because of the difficulties of capturing character through rational analysis, we are all the more fortunate to be entering into this relationship with President Ford. In our time few match the spirit of civic engagement of President Ford. One of the greatest challenges of any society, of any relationship, is how to deal with belief and disagreement. Conflict is inherent to democracy and the capacity to live through conflict is inherently difficult and art in itself. From the debacles of the 20th century we are painfully aware of the extreme dangers on either side of belief. On the one side dogmatism and authoritarianism and on the other relativism and disengagement. But in the middle the right course is far less clear. Party lines can so easily become points of estrangement and the loss of a sense of collective purpose and well-being can just as easily slip away. Therefore one of the greatest lessons a leader must teach is how to make public policy and be the kind of person who reinforces a sense of community. To my mind this is President Ford's finest achievement and the greatest strength for the university in the bond we now forge. Several months ago President Ford spoke at the memorial service for Ed Levy, one of the most distinguished figures in law and the president of the University of Chicago and President Ford appointed as his Attorney General. President Ford recounted how he invited Ed Levy to the White House to discuss the Justice Department and how he offered him the position on the spot. President Ford needed, he said, and wanted integrity and distinction and he didn't even know nor care what Ed Levy's party affiliation was. Imagine. I have said today that we create a relationship and my favorite description of the meaning of friendship is from one of Montaigne's essays. In the friendship I speak of Montaigne says, Our souls mingle and blend with each other so completely that they have faced the seam that joined them. Mr. President, by naming the School of Public Policy in your honor, happily and proudly, our souls now mingle and blend and we have faced the seam that joined them. Thank you for this friendship. We are honored to have with us here today Michigan's 46th Governor, the Honorable John Engler. Governor Engler has been a major force in Michigan government for more than three decades since his election to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1970 at the age of 22. Elected Governor in 1990 and re-elected in 1994 and 1998, he is recognized nationally for his leadership in the areas of fiscal responsibility, educational reform, and innovative social services initiatives. He has been a strong supporter of public higher education and of this university. Governor Engler earned a bachelor's degree in economics, agricultural economics from Michigan State University and a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School. We are proud that he is also a Michigan alumnus having received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1993. It is my pleasure to introduce our Governor, Governor Engler. Good morning. Thank you President Bollinger for that kind introduction. This is Ford. This is Ford. All the members of the Ford family. Dr. Kissinger, General Scowcroft, Dean Blank, fellow alumni, ladies and gentlemen. It is a delight and a privilege for me to be here today to provide greetings on this suspicious occasion. An event honoring the only president to hail from Michigan. President Ford, it is so fitting and proper that the University of Michigan School of Public Policy is welcomed after you, a man whose life has been devoted to public service. You've got your start here at the University of Michigan. Coming here as a young man from Grand Rapids and starring as an outstanding athlete and a wonderful student and as the President has just indicated, a very hard worker even in those days. That hard work continued as a congressman and eventually the House Republican leader from Grand Rapids. You've distinguished yourself as a leader among leaders. Your integrity, your character, shown through and was an example to all. As President, you guided this country during challenging times. Your tenure was indeed a time to heal. Your leadership made us proud. And now as a statesman, your advice is sought and heated by many. How appropriate it is that this University bestow upon you the honor of naming for you the school who will train tomorrow's leaders, inspiring them to the ideals your life, your career has embodied. The University of Michigan already home, the Gerald R. Ford Library, will add to its sterling reputation with the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, preparing today's students to be tomorrow's policy shapers. I can't think of a better legacy for President Gerald R. Ford, and on behalf of the people of Michigan, President Ford, we once again thank you for your public service, for your dedication to your home state, for your love of Michigan, the state and the University, and for the innumerable contributions which have marked your distinguished career, and we continue to wish you Godspeed and many more years of service to the people of this great nation that you love so much. Thank you. Policy makers are always on call. You never know when could we recognize and applaud members of the Ford family. Of course, Mrs. Ford, please, really grateful to have you here. We have Jack and Julian Ford, who I believe came in, arrived at some point here last night. Stephen Ford is not attending. Susan and Vaden Bales, would you please stand up? We could welcome Mike Ford. And we also have President Ford's brother, Richard Addison Ford. Dr. Henry Kissinger, Chairman of the International Consulting Firm Kissinger Associates, served as the nation's 56th Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. A National Security Advisor to Presidents Nixon and Ford, he played a major role in formulating U.S. foreign policy, including re-establishing relations with China. He has received many honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Medal of Liberty. Dr. Kissinger is also a scholar, the author of a dozen books and numerous articles on U.S. foreign policy. International Affairs and Diplomatic History. He earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and taught there from 1954 to 1969. On behalf of the university community, we welcome you, Dr. Kissinger, and thank you very much for joining us on this occasion. Mr. Kissinger? Governor Engels? Mr. President? I confess I had a moment of panic there when the President of the university and President Ford were consulting before my turn. I thought that perhaps that President Ford had developed some second thoughts about our association. Now, for those of you who like to know about the inside story of how events like this unfold, those of us on the platform have been handed a schedule. And the schedule says that I should finish by 11.42 exactly. First of all, that will enable all of you to say you were present at a historic occasion. Second, since my native language is German, I can easily go to 11.42 without placing a verb. It is a great privilege for me to come here to pay tribute to one of the great human beings that I have been honored to know in my life. I treasure the years that I could serve as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor for a while under the leadership of President Ford. And it means an enormous amount that so many of our associates of that period are here again to pay tribute to our President. Washington is about power, and it is very rare. Indeed, it is unheard of that so many people who were associated in the Ford administration were friends then and have remained friends throughout the remainder of our lives. In Washington, competition among key persons is what keeps the newspapers going and it is what public officials usually engage in. Okay, President Ford took over at one of the most tragic periods of American history at a time when the administration was demoralized. When internationally our adversaries were beginning to question whether we had the will or the ability to perform America's role as the defenders of freedom. Our allies did not know anymore where America was heading. There were crises in the Middle East. There was a just beginning relationship with China. There was a still formidable Soviet Union and President Ford took over at that period. The first non-elected president in our history and because I would say of the goodness of his character, the integrity of his convictions and the conciliatoriness of his nature. South helped overcome this crisis and made it look as if no other cause were even possible. I say this moreover as somebody who believed then and who believes now that his predecessor Richard Nixon performed outstanding services for the United States. And the crisis that President Ford inherited was a crisis of the nation in our society and it is no reflection on any other individual to say that President Ford saved this country from the worst crisis since the Civil War. And so I know I speak for all of my colleagues who also happen to be my friends to say that it means a great deal to us to be present at the opening of a school of public service that carries the name of Gerald Ford. Whom history will treat even better than his contemporaries did, thought that his accomplishments were natural and they thought that because we have never had a more self-effacing president or a president who thought more of service and less of himself. Now I'm supposed and I will make some remarks that may be relevant to the idea of public service. And I would like to stress one aspect in which I perhaps have some competence, which is the perspective that is brought to public service by academicians as compared to the perspective of policymakers. When you're on the outside you can pick your subject. You can work on it for as long as you choose. You are responsible primarily to yourself and you can afford to pick among the range of options that are available. Those that are most persuasive, perhaps even the most elevated, and you have the great privilege of changing your mind and going back to the library and say I'm going to write another book and you'll even get some credit for having adapted your view. As a policymaker you're always under pressure. You don't choose your subject. The subject presents itself and anybody in high office will tell you. The eerie feeling you have at the end of each day when you have a list of telephone calls and a pile of documents and you have to decide which of them you're going to neglect, whom you're going to add to the list of your enemies, which in my case was never sure. And which of the problems that's in these memoranda you're going to let go for a bit and hope that it doesn't flare up because before you can go to that pile again. The most difficult problem of a policymaker is to separate the urgent from the important and the urgent always has a constituency and the important maybe some years in the future. You don't have to deal with problems that are five years down the road because you may be out of office when it becomes acute. So your priorities are always skewed. The policymaker is usually I would say invariably as aware of the choices at the academician. Most policymakers are as intelligent as anchorman in the evening, even though you may not believe this. But there are some experiments that they cannot attempt, not because they don't think the result would be great if the theory on which it were based were true, but because they cannot run the risk. There were many people during the Cold War, which of course most of the present undergraduate and graduate generation doesn't even remember very well. There were many in the period of the Cold War who used to think that some unilateral disarmament by the United States would morally impel the Soviet Union to follow suit. That argument had to be rejected, not because a succession of American presidents didn't understand it, not because they wouldn't have liked the outcome, but because they could not risk the policy of failure. So you have to understand what especially a president faces. And especially in the field I know best, which is foreign policy, most Americans think that foreigners are aspirant Americans. And that they react to events like Americans would. But we are a uniquely blessed society. We have never had a powerful enemy until very recently. We have never had to conduct foreign policy with a sense of imminent catastrophe. We have had a history that is totally different and unique. And so when one looks at Russia or China or Europe or anywhere in the world, it is very hard for us to understand the cultural and historical context. When we deal with the Chinese, we deal with a country that has had 5,000 years of uninterrupted history. They've had 14 dynasties whose individual history is longer than the entire history of the United States. And they think, maybe wrongly, that they managed to get through most of that period without advice from the United States. So it is not self-evident that lectures from Washington are the best way to persuade Chinese leaders that it requires respect and understanding. In our system it is the President who has to bridge the gap between our national experience and our vision of the future. The President has in a sense to walk alone and to bear the burden of the gap between what the society has experienced and what they will require. Public opinion polls are no help because the public does not forgive its leaders for disasters. Even the disasters reflect what the public was believed to have wanted. In 1938, Neville Chamberlain was the most popular man in England after Munich, and two years later he was finished. Those of us who served under President Ford will never forget the way in which he handled this role. In 1976, President Ford was in a primary fight for the presidential nomination, and I was going on to Africa to promote majority rule for Southern Africa. And I had a draft of a speech which would break entirely new ground for the United States, which had never unambiguously supported it. And I was going off and in those days domestic politics was not part of our foreign policy discussion. But as I left, I said some of your advisors are telling me that this will not help you in Texas. Do you want me to delay this trip? President Ford said, we can't change our foreign policy every time we have a primary, or we're not going to have a foreign policy. Of course, he won only one delegate in Texas. But people have long since forgotten who won the primary in Texas, but people will not forget who was the American president who supported majority rule in Southern Africa. And if I may say a word about the end of the Vietnam War, the tragic last few months without discussing the passions that animated the debate. But in those last two months, when the collapse was certain, there was only one issue that we in the White House were concerned about, which was to rescue as many Vietnamese who had staked their lives on American promises. We had the intelligence reports. We knew what was happening better than anyone else. And there were 5,000 Americans left, and President Ford made the heroic decision to withdraw them so gradually that every day we could together with some Americans take out a lot of Vietnamese. We managed to rescue 150,000 lives. And I have the record of the telephone conversation when the airport of Saigon was already under artillery fire. And I was calling the president and telling him, we've got to pull the plug. This is it. And he was resisting, not because he wanted to keep a war going, because there were 2,000 people at the airport. And he was trying to see whether there was some way we could still get them out at the airport. And in the event, the last helicopter left about an hour before the North Vietnamese entered Saigon and sent a million people to concentration camps, I mention all of this because policy disputes come and go. But the purposes and the values that animate an administration persist forever. And it is a particular challenge for us at this moment in our society when we have so many different generations overlapping. There's the generation of the president and to the extent of myself who were brought up in believing in the beneficent use of American power and of American policy in this world. Because of our experiences in World War II and in the construction of the recovery of Europe in Japan. Then there's the Vietnam generation that is more doubtful about the American role. And then there's the new computer generation which knows perhaps not too much about either of the previous roles and which has broad knowledge but very little incentive for historical depth. So it is a privilege to be here at a school dedicated to the name of our president and our friend. And a crucial period in American history as we move from the Cold War to a world less dangerous but more complicated and from the simple varieties of the previous generation to the more complex understandings of how to distill wisdom from knowledge. And I would like to thank the president of the university to give me this opportunity and to conclude with a proverb that a Chinese or rather Singaporean friend told me about the nature of policy in our period. I frankly am not sure there are as many Chinese proverb as they lay upon us. And he may have made it up as he went along but it goes like this. When there is turmoil under the heavens little problems are dealt with as if they were big problems. And big problems are not dealt with at all. When there is order under the heavens big problems are reduced to little problems. And little problems should not obsess us. President Ford identified the big problems and reduced them to little problems. And what more can you say about a national leader. Thank you very much. It is a great pleasure as provost of this university to honor President Ford and to celebrate the growth and maturation of the Ford School of Public Policy. The Ford School is exemplary of the best that a great public research university can offer both to students and to the broader society. It is built on the premise that universities serve society and on the promise that scholarly methods and training can improve the quality of public policy at all levels from local to international. Public policy is intrinsically interdisciplinary depending on the problem at hand. Policy makers and policy analysts must draw on insights and methods from political science, economics, law, mathematics, engineering, sociology, even psychology. Only a large research university can bring together the best of minds and methods in all of these areas at sufficient scale to create superb training and research for the profession of public policy. Ford School faculty have appointments in most of the disciplines on this list and they work together to understand and to inform debate about the most pressing issues of our time. In coming together to create a curriculum in public policy, actually two, one domestic and one international, they've created something more interesting and more enduring than mere collaboration across the disciplines. They and their students have created a place where professionals, students and academics learn each other's languages, learn to listen and to hear the different cadences and then to translate from this medley to the arena of public policy in which broad propositions must speak in unison to all citizens. The interdisciplinary potential of this great university is fully realized when we bring together diverse life experiences and training and create new knowledge, new ways of knowing and ultimately new ways of doing. Public policy is an ideal area for this kind of intense collaboration and learning and Michigan is an ideal place. President Ford is an ideal model for the practice of public policy and public service, again from local to international. From his days representing Grand Rapids to his leadership on the world stage, he has always known how to listen to different voices in many languages and then to find the corner of public policy that best speaks to our common fate. To pick just two examples, he approved the regulations that implemented Title IX with their extraordinary consequences for women's participation in sports and indeed in public life more generally, consequences that we see and celebrate in Ann Arbor every day. He also negotiated the Helsinki Accords, a milestone in the relationship between the Soviet Union and the West. It is worth noting that faculty and students at the Ford School are closely engaged in the study of both social equality and international relations. President Ford has provided the school with far more than his name. As this university takes special pride in having cultivated the student Gerald R. Ford and thus perhaps launched the statesman President Ford, so too do we look to the roots of the Ford School with special affection. In the audience are two former directors of the Institute of Public Policy Studies, Edie Goldenberg and Paul Courant, as well as the first dean of the school, Ned Gramlich and John Chamberlain, a past and current leader in the school. We miss deeply, we miss deeply the late Jackie Walker who was director of the ups during the 1970s and who initiated the conversations with President Ford that led indeed to the naming these years later today. Jack loved this institution and he would be bursting with pride and joy in this moment. Although she has already accomplished an enormous amount, Rebecca Blank is actually only beginning her second year as dean of the Ford School. She has a compelling vision of the school which speaks directly to the many voices and disciplines that come together to create good public policy. In addition to an astonishing level of energy, her own experience makes her perfect to lead this collection of policy-oriented interdisciplinary faculty, students and professionals. She has achieved international distinction as a scholar, as a policy analyst and as a policy maker, having served most recently as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors. She has a PhD in economics from MIT and has taught at both Princeton and Northwestern before going to Washington and then coming to Michigan. At Northwestern, she led a very strong group, an interdisciplinary group working on poverty policy and at Michigan she joins another such group and is continuing to create and contribute to the areas of academic and policy-related literature in economic distribution of income and in labor economics generally. I am proud and delighted to introduce to you Rebecca Blank, the Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Thank you, Provost Cantor. As dean of the newly named Ford School, I'm absolutely delighted to be part of this ceremony today. While we are Michigan's newest and smallest school, the public policy and public administration programs at Michigan date back to 1914, as President Bollinger mentioned. After 86 years of change and of growth, the Ford School is poised at a unique moment of opportunity to grow as an academic program and as a place where first rate faculty address key issues of public importance. Through our students in our faculty and aided by the gifts of many donors, we are building an increasingly well-known educational program in both the domestic and the international policy arenas. It is important that we enter this period of expansion with a name that reflects our mission. Today we celebrate being named in honor of a man whose lifelong commitment to public service represents what a policy school is all about. The name Ford School communicates to others that we are training students who will pursue careers focused on the common good. President Ford's 26 years in Congress and his years in the presidency provide an important lessons to our students. For instance, critical work is often conducted outside of the limelight. Careful study and analysis matters and there is no substitute for high standards of personal integrity. His work as president, reconciling a divided country, teaches us much about leadership and the value of working across partisan lines. With this name, we have much to live up to. As the school grows, we are working to more closely interact the world of the university with the world of policy. We are seeking new faculty whose careers demonstrate first-rate research as well as long-term interests in public interest issues. We are bringing policymakers to campus to teach and to write. We are developing a state and local policy center that helps to address critical issues facing the country, sending student interns to Washington, Lansing, and indeed around the world to work in ways that improve people's lives. And as part of this expansion, we're beginning efforts to significantly increase our endowment to a level where it can support this wide range of activity. I'm pleased to announce that we have received gifts totaling almost $7 million from the following individuals, foundations, and corporations. Mr. and Mrs. Martin J. Allen Jr., the Annenberg Foundation for the Walter H. Annenberg Professorship in Education Policy, City Group, Mr. and Mrs. Peter C. Cook, Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. DeVos, the Honorable and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. J. Ira Harris for the Ira and Mickey Harris Professorship in Public Policy, Robert and Judith Hooker, and Gil S. Oman, and Martha A. Darling. We are deeply grateful to these donors for giving us an excellent start on our $30 million endowment goal. These gifts will help us recruit outstanding faculty, provide support to students who come to the Ford School from all over the world, and develop new programs that will draw the academic world and the policy-making world more closely together. Combined with other gifts from alumni and from friends and with support from the state of Michigan, these gifts help make the school an important player in the policy-making world. But we have just begun this fundraising effort, and I know there are many of you out there in the audience who also want to honor President Ford and are wondering why we haven't contacted you. I promise you, you can look forward to hearing from us. In addition to recognizing our donors, I also want to acknowledge the important role that the alumni of the Ford School play, both in the school and in the policy-making world. We're pleased that many of our alumni remain involved with the school throughout their lives, serving as mentors, lecturers, counselors, and financial supporters of the school. And we are proud of their commitment to work on public issues and of the integrity with which they approach the work that they do. It is my pleasure to introduce a representative for our alumni body, Timmy Lewis, a member of the Ford School class of 2000 who joins us today. Recently back from a summer in South Africa and about to begin a job in international trade in New York City, she is the kind of person who comes to the Ford School as a student. A graduate of Duke University, Timmy worked in Washington before coming to Michigan for her policy degree. As a student here, she excelled academically, served in leadership positions in campus organizations, taught a course, and managed to complete two internships in a single summer. Representing our students and our alumni, I'm very pleased to welcome Timmy Lewis. Good morning all. I hope this day finds you well and thinking vigorously about public policy. What it means, what it means for you personally and why we should care at all. These are some of the thoughts I will briefly share with you today. As I started, I would first like to thank Dean Blank. For a number of reasons I would like to thank Dean Rebecca Blank, and not just for that gracious introduction and the opportunity to represent my classmates past and present. Rather, this thank you is for Dean Blank's swift commitment to helping the School of Public Policy, now the Ford School, realize the next stages of its potential. Many others and I appreciate the time she has taken to get to know us and to get to know our school. She has worked hard to raise the profile of the school, both externally and internally, and we are all much obliged. Thank you, Dean Blank. Well, what can I say about public policy? It's such a nebulous term with vastly different meanings for different people, including all of us associated with the Ford School. I suspect some think of it as an individual responsibility to do public service, to care about various communities, and do something to effect positive change in them. Others may think of public policy and associate the term with government's responsibility to attend to the needs of people. My definition tends to be more of a hybrid of these two modes of thinking. I believe that it is a collective responsibility of people and government to care and make a difference, and I suppose this has been the motivating factor for me in pursuing this line of work over the years. But I did not come to this conclusion all on my own. I had help along the way from mentors, professors, extended family, my parents. These are people who not only took an interest in me, but also in their communities. They have made time to help others and to do their part for the collective good. So largely through example, I have learned that you should care what it means to care, and that it's okay to care. I look around at my classmates, past and present, and I see what public policy means to them. From the halls of Congress, to community organizations, to the rooms of corporate America, and all points in between, I see people practicing public policy in their everyday lives. They take time to care, and their commitment is expressed in a variety of ways. And evenings set aside to tutor a child, work in community and religious groups, work abroad for international organizations and countries, or an investment of time and energy in deciding the next administration of our country. It is as diverse as the people who choose to engage in the process. We are here today to celebrate the historic naming of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. In doing so, we have occasion to think about what public policy is and what people, and the people who choose to engage in the process. President Ford, as a member of Congress, as vice president, understood and practiced the fine art of public policymaking. He knew when to push hard, when to compromise, and when to stand on principle. Since leaving public office, President Ford has continued to speak and write about the pressing policy concerns of our time. In this way, he is a model for all of us at the Ford School as we begin our careers in public policy. Today's ceremonies also offer a chance to really think about public policy and what it means for us personally and again, why we should care. This is an important point for the school, the Ford School. Many of the people that you will hear from today and scores more behind the scene have invested much time and effort into this moment. But it's also students past and present who have brought us to this point in time. Their willingness to engage in the policies of our public and their decision to care. In the classroom and out in the real world, students of the Ford School are demonstrating their commitment in a variety of settings and venues. Events of today should also give us pause to examine our own contributions and if need be create or renew our commitment to making a difference in this world, however small or unnoticed. What can you do that you're not doing? How can you return the favor? These are certainly questions that have crossed my mind as I prepare to return to the workforce. As I am thankful for the experience I had at the Ford School where I've had a chance to retool and renew myself for the work ahead. I just want to say again how excited I am to be a part of the naming ceremony and how I'm very much looking forward to the movement of the Ford School into the future which I know will be very bright. Thank you for your time today. At this time I'd like to introduce another Rebecca. Rebecca McGowan, Regent of the University of Michigan. Rebecca McGowan of Ann Arbor, a graduate of Lake Forest College has served on the border region since 1992. Prior to moving to Ann Arbor in 1985, Regent McGowan worked for Senators Adelaide Stevenson and Frank Church and as a senior staff member and deputy national campaign director for Vice President Walter F. Mondale during his run for presidency. Regent McGowan is a member of the past, excuse me, is a member and past chair of the Center for the Education of Women's Leadership Council. She also served on the Board of Directors of the University Musical Society and I'm very pleased to introduce to you Regent Rebecca McGowan. Thank you, Timmy, for that magnificent effort. President Ford, Mrs. Ford, friends of the Ford family and of the University of Michigan. It has been a joy for me as a Regent to have the opportunity to work closely with the Ford School and the people of the Ford School. From its early days as the Institute of Public Administration the program has prepared its students for public life. In eight years alone the school has grown from the Institute of Public Policy Studies to the School of Public Policy to the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. This growth has been driven by a rigorous academic program an excellent faculty drawn from across this university and a highly diverse student body marked by its intelligence, energy and concern for the public good. Together, they speak brilliantly to the character and purpose of the University of Michigan. The school is again entering a pivotal period of growth adding new academic programs recruiting distinguished new faculty members and greatly expanding the reach and breadth of its research. As it becomes increasingly active and respected in policymaking world, the school reinvigorates this great public university's commitment to linking scholarship and public service. I am pleased to have the honor of introducing the university's most prominent graduate. His accomplishments are manifold 13 terms as a member of Congress representing the people of the Grand Rapids area, the leader of the House of Representatives, Vice President of the United States, President of the United States, Siner of the Helsinki Awards and of Title IX. Throughout his long and vibrant public life, President Ford has brought honor and excellence to the title public servant. It is an honor for the University of Michigan to entrust this noble school to his name. It is my great privilege to welcome a member of the class of 1935 and the 38th President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford. Thank you. Won't you all sit down please? Thank you very, very much. Thank you. Please sit down. Governor Engler, Secretary Kissinger, President Bollinger, students, faculty, friends of the University, it's a very high honor and a very great privilege for me to be here on this wonderful occasion in my life and a important part of this great University. I thank you very much, Reed McGowan, for that much too generous and far to kind introduction. No higher honor can come to a man then to have a school bear his name. That is especially true when the school is devoted to public service. I am profoundly grateful to you, President Bollinger and to the Board of Regents for this recognition. I'm excited about Dean Blank's imaginative plans for the future and I'm thrilled to see new partnerships taking place between the University and the Ford Library and Museum. Since leaving the White House I've had the great, great privilege of appearing, lecturing, teaching at over 200 American colleges and universities. I can't imagine a better place to hang around. From this grassroots exposure to students at big schools, small schools, public schools, private schools and for black colleges I learned firsthand the high quality of this current generation of young people. I'm totally convinced when the reins of government are turned over to them for them to manage and dictate our future at the local, state, or national level our nation will be very, very well served. I congratulate them as a generation. Returning to this I say historic place which is meant so much to me for so, so long is an experience difficult to describe. Please don't worry Betty made me promise I wouldn't come here to escort you down memory lane. But I can hardly come to Ann Arbor without acknowledging all that I owe to this great, great university. As much as I learned in the classroom I learned even more on the outside including on the gridiron. Hopefully I'm learning still. Believe it or not at the age of 87 I'm taking my first steps into the internet until recently I couldn't describe or couldn't distinguish I should say a gigabyte from a happy meal and I thought and I thought surfing was something you did with a board in our oceans. Now next to professors I found that my grandchildren are the best instructors around and I thank them for their help with granddad. Henry in listening to your remarks I was reminded of the scene in Tom Sawyer in which Tom runs away and then creeps back into town to attend his own funeral. Now I know how Tom felt. I almost had to pinch myself to make sure that I was alive and here. Seriously Henry let me thank you not for what you just said today but what you have done for me over the years in some very difficult and controversial times but what you have done for our country over the last many decades you are a true architect of peace and history not to mention future generations and all of us especially Betty and me will be forever grateful for our long and wonderful friendship and may I add a footnote during my recent little problem in Philadelphia Henry called every day and was concerned about what was happening at the hospital and for that very important assurance from you I thank you again it's customary for speakers to tell an audience how pleased they are to be where they are believe me in my case it's no new mere formality for with all due respect to WC fields on the whole I'd rather be anywhere than Philadelphia under a recent circumstances the hospital and the staff were terrific and for that I am deeply grateful you may recall some confusion surrounding my recent hospitalization there that little disturbance aside my week in Philadelphia was a nostalgic one you see it was exactly 60 years ago that I attended my first Republican national convention in Philadelphia the year was 1940 and I was in the gallery along with several thousand other Republican young Turks enthusiastically shouting we want Wilkie well in this era of spin doctors focus groups and media advisors I'm not sure we could get Wilkie as our presidential candidate if smoked filled rooms are a thing of the past so it appears is spontaneity still and I say this most sincerely I'm an optimist about our future about our political processes in the future there is something that I earned or learned at an early age something that I would heartily recommend to anyone who contemplates a life in public service or politics I learned that most people are mostly good most of the time I learned that an adversary is not the same thing as an enemy I learned to fight hard for whatever my views might be without ever questioning the motives or patriotism of those who believed otherwise wherever I go these days I sense a longing for community and a desire on the part of citizens of all ages to be a integral part of something bigger and nobler than themselves this attitude is especially strong among our younger generation history tells us that if it is only a matter of time before this generation is being or will be tested just as mine was tested by a tragic economic depression and a foreign tyranny and a hateful regime of Jim Crow outwardly I say to this new generation your America may not look the same as mine new technologies new industries new forms of communication new medical breakthroughs promised to expand the frontiers of life in our years ahead but amidst so much that is new I hope this new generation will never lose the old faith in America whose greatest weapons are moral not military it is this fact that enabled us I firmly believe to defeat Nazi tyranny outlast the evil empire past civil rights laws tearing down age old barriers to human potential and begin however belatedly to recognize and reward women for their tremendous contributions to our society the bigger issue the greater need for your active involvement it's when truth is entered into politics as an advocate of America's global obligations half a century ago it is just as true for today's young people who will be called upon to reform entitlement programs and make Washington something more than a gigantic sound bite factory for years we were told that social security was the third rail of American politics well one candidate in the current campaign is openly advocating a measure of privatization while the other candidate recognizes the need for reform and hopes that can be put off not too far in the distant future such a dialogue at the highest campaign level can be a critical performance and a big big constructive change for our debates whenever they are held likewise with the issue of prescription drugs given the graying of America healthcare has become a budgetary and human priority both candidates profess this satisfaction with the status quo one candidate would rely upon the expansion of the federal government to provide universal coverage while his opponent would enlist the states and the private sector to do the same job fair-minded people can and will disagree over which course is the better one to follow that's what campaigns are all about we can take heart in my judgment that real issues affecting real people have gained a center stage in the year 2000 it may be an accident of timing or it may be the unavoidable response to demographic and cultural changes beyond the control of any politician but whatever the cause debates in a generation we are being treated I think this year to more substantive issues than at any previous time now this is notwithstanding the attempts of some to dwell on Al Gore's kissing habits or George Bush's frankness at an open mic I happen to think both are irrelevant and I think it's about time that we treat them that way the world has turned over the world has turned over many times since the September 1931 class ventured out into what commencement speakers then and now euphemistically called the real world elsewhere that year 1931 Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardosa said give you his words he spoke of what he called three great mysteries in the lives of mortal beings the mystery of birth at the beginning the mystery of death at the end and greater than either the mystery of love everything that is most precious in life is one way or another a form of love art form is a form of love if it be noble labor is a form of love if it be worthy thought is a form of love if it be inspired there is no mystery however regarding the commitment of today's students in this school whether like it to be a part of something bigger than themselves my fondest hope is that you students never lose that love that you realize politics is an art as well as a science that all your labor and all your thoughts advance us toward the day when no one drags a chain and no one wills a sword for then you will have given back to this university which is given so much to you and so many before you may God bless all who teach and study within this wall and may we God bless America thank you as concludes the ceremony today thank you all for sitting through this wonderful event and this warm auditorium if you think this is hot you should have been here two weeks ago for student convocation as the new students came Mrs. Ford members of the Ford family Governor Angler, Dr. Kissinger cabinet members in the audience members Ford Library, Ford Museum Ford Foundation all the connections that we have Mr. President thank you for this act of friendship that concludes the ceremony